Density Estimation for Cetaceans from Passive Acoustic Fixed Sensors

DE Tutorial Mt Hood 2011

This page contains information for those participating in the density estimation tutorial at Mount Hood on August 21st, 2011 For a brief outline of the workshop contents, see this page.

During this workshop, there will some practical data analysis exercises for participants. We recommend that, if possible, participants download and install the relevant computer programs prior to the workshop, as this will save time on the day. We will be able to assist with any problems at the start of the workshop.

We look forward to seeing you on the 21st!

— Danielle Harris, Tiago Marques and Len Thomas

Software

NB1: Packages can be easily installed from R once it is installed and run, provided you have internet access. To do this, open R, go to ‘Packages’ – ‘Install Packages’ then select an appropriate CRAN mirror, and packages can be chosen from a list. So, once you’ve installed R, go ahead and install the secr package.

NB2: R’s learning curve can be steep. We will provide all the code needed for the practical sessions, and we’ll be there to help. However, if you are unfamiliar with R, you might want to run an example session before coming to the workshop, using the “Appendix A A sample session” in “An introduction to R” book. You can open this book as a pdf from R, by selecting Help|Manuals(in pdf)|An introduction to R.

Note that while R runs on just about any operating system, Distance is Microsoft Windows only. If you’re bringing a computer running MacOS or Linux, you’ll have to work with someone else with a Windows machine for one case study.

Key References

During the workshop, several case studies will be introduced. The key references for these studies are listed below.

NB: An overview of all the case studies will be provided on the day, but the references contain more detail about data collection, processing and finer details of the analyses.